Home Caregiving Grant

The Home Caregiving Grant (HCG) is a means-tested monthly cash grant for families caring for seniors or persons with disabilities at home. It can help with a helper, home-care services or healthcare items. HCG is a community-care support grant, not a long-term-care insurance policy and not a payment made automatically to every household with a disabled person (AIC, accessed Aug 2026).

Eligibility and care setting

The care recipient must be a Singapore Citizen, or a Singapore Permanent Resident with a living Singapore Citizen parent, child or spouse, live in Singapore, and not live in a residential long-term-care institution. The household must have monthly income per person of S$4,800 or less, or property annual value under S$21,000 where there is no household income (AIC, accessed Aug 2026).

The care recipient must permanently require some assistance with at least three of the six activities of daily living. Physical-disability assessments use a Functional Assessment Report completed by a GP or approved healthcare professional. For a person with Autism Spectrum Disorder or Intellectual Disability, an MSF-approved assessor uses a Client Assessment Form. An MOH-accredited severe-disability assessment used for schemes such as IDAPE or ElderFund can also be used instead of a separate FAR (AIC, accessed 11 September 2026). A separate assessment fee may apply. AIC's current FAQ specifies that the FAR assessor must meet the relevant professional-registration and licensing requirements; for a CAF, the assessor must be CAF-R certified and be a registered physiotherapist or occupational therapist (AIC, accessed 11 September 2026).

2026 payout tiers

Under the current AIC schedule, the monthly payout is S$600 for household income per person of S$0–S$1,500, or for a no-income household with property annual value of S$21,000 or below; S$400 for S$1,501–S$3,600; and S$200 for S$3,601–S$4,800. If the household owns multiple properties, AIC says the lower S$200 tier applies. For the 2026 schedule, the page says the means test uses 2025 Annual Values where the household has no income. These are schedule amounts, not a universal S$600 entitlement; the care setting, household profile and applicable means-test rules remain relevant (AIC, accessed 11 September 2026; MOH, published 24 October 2025).

Application and boundaries

Applicants can apply through AIC's e-Services for Financing Schemes (eFASS) using Singpass or by hard copy through AIC. Approved payouts are made to the nominated bank account in the following month and may include the month of application; AIC says processing may take up to four weeks. The care recipient must not be living in a residential long-term-care institution such as a nursing home, chronic sick hospital, psychiatric rehabilitation home, sheltered home, welfare home, senior group home, adult disability home or inpatient hospice palliative-care service. HCG is distinct from IDAPE, ElderFund and PioneerDAS, which have different cohorts or severe-disability conditions, and from CareShield Life, which is insurance. Eligibility for one scheme does not automatically establish eligibility for another (AIC, accessed 11 September 2026).